A detailed introduction to the role anarchism played in the Spanish Civil War and the anarchist revolution within the republican zone.

Much has been written about the Spanish Civil War but the contribution of the Anarchists has been either totally ignored or reduced to a few footnotes which were often composed of blatant lies. To set the record straight this pamphlet was produced. It is not a history of the Civil War, that would require many hundreds of pages to do justice to the subject. It is an uncovering of the "hidden history" of the Anarchist participation in Spain's anti-fascist struggle.

The anarchist masses threw themselves into a fight against fascism, and its cause, capitalism. Unfortunately the revolution was not complete, the CNT leaders held it back. Indeed their behaviour highlights the effect that power can have on even those who lay claim to anarchism. Spain provided important lessons for anarchists.

CNT (Confederacion Nacional de Trabajo) - anarchist-Syndicalist trade union founded in 1911. The most militant and revolutionary union. Sought to organise all workers into one big union. Based itself on the ideas of anarchism and revolutionary syndicalism.

1934

In the 1930's Europe was experiencing one of its' worst ever slumps. The Wall Street crash came in 1929 and its repercussions were felt far and wide. Spain was no exceptionBy 1936 unemployment had gone over 30% in many of the towns and cities Out of a total workforce of three million, one million were out of work. There was no dole and as prices rose by 80% in the five years up to 1936, many encountered severe hardship.

Overcrowding, slopping out, TB infection, pathetic education facilities, Irish prisons are in deep crisis. Judge "Padlock" Patwell recently retired after 52 years on the bench. He was notorious for his hardline attitude and sent many a man and woman to jail. It was on the subject of Cork prison that he remarked whilst being interviewed on radio the other day, he was bemaoning the temporary release system, but refered to the 40 prisoners currently sleeping on matresses on the floors of the recreation room.

The June bank holiday weekend saw hundreds traveling to Erris for the Party Against the Pioe festival organised by the Rossport Solidarity Camp. The festival was held beside the Shell construction compound at Aghoose, where the tunnel for the last stage of their controversial experimental raw gas pipeline is to be started. This compound has been the site of many protests, including one earlier in the week when security punched a female Shell to Sea campaigner in the face.

Starting in Solidarity Books on Thursday the 16th of June is a reading group for Karl Marx's Capital (or 'Das Kapital' in the original German) Volume 1. For 13 Thursdays we will work our way through the book with the help of David Harvey's 'Capital' lecture series, available here: http://davidharvey.org/reading-capital/. Whatever your politics, you're welcome to come along and engage with this massively important piece of work.

Our rulers at Stormont are living in fantasy land if they believe a reduction in corporation tax will results in thousands of jobs being created. It will open the floodgates to profit driven bosses resulting in workers rights and conditions being further eroded with a further escalation in cuts in essential public services such as health and education.

A Union drive in computer giant Apple retail is breaking new ground. Apple showroom employee Cory Moll who works in an Apple computer store in San Francisco has started a drive to unionise retail workers in a rare move at the company. He wants to unionise his fellow workers to fight for better wages and conditions. Unfair practices at the company have spurred him in this struggle.

What the Workers Solidarity Movement see the role of the anarchist organisation as being. How we see its relationship with and as part of the working class. How we see a revolution developing. This is an old version of the position paper - the current version is at http://www.wsm.ie/c/role-anarchist-organisation-policy

Just 12 weeks after the Moriarty Tribunal found that he made corrupt payments to Michael Lowry TD in order to influence the granting of a mobile phone licence, Denis O’Brien has shown that for Ireland’s elite the good times still roll. Digicel, the mobile phone company wholly owned by O’Brien, has announced that its net profit for the year ending March 2011 increased by €120million. In keeping with the true lack of transparency so beloved by our super-wealthy however, Digicel refused to divulge the actual net profit figure. What was announced was that O’Brien’s own personal income from Digicel last year was €28million, plus of course whatever income he has from his various other companies and investments.

This weekend sees simultaneous protests across Europe emerging out of the square occupations that have taken place in dozens of cities across the Spanish state. As part of this growing European movement assemblies will be taking part in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.

The Workers Solidarity Movement position on the trade unions including an anarchist analysis of the unions and what sort of demands anarchists should put forward in the unions. This paper was retired at the July 2017 WSM national conference as the accumulation of three decades of modifications had made it cumbersome and outdated. It is preserved here to reflect that debate and because it was a fundamental foundational document of WSM drawn up in part through exchanges with with the FdCA in Italy.

A 19 year old who died by suicide at Hydebank Wood young offenders centre in south Belfast last year had been locked in his cell for around 22 hours a day because of short-staffing. Allyn Baxter took his own life after disgracefully spending three days on remand for not paying his TV license.

While in South East Asia recently Sean Matthews caught up with two Malaysian anarchists who told me about the issues they face as workers and anarchists in their country. Over a few drinks and few hours we discussed the current political and social situation including the problem of race and religion in their country. We exchanged ideas and experiences, the wider international anarchist movement and most important what we can do to assist anarchists in this part of the world.

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